I love Rafa and would argue his corner until I turn purple in the face. I also really rate Johnson (when he has competition for his place) and thank Rafa for signing him. However, Johnson for £17m or stick with Arbeloa rather than selling him £3.5m...? No brainer for me
Good result MOM was between Johnson and Skrtel for me but Johnson takes it for miles covered if nothing else.
i thought Agger was great defending all the long balls and got a few good blocks in as well. skrtel and johnson both put in a shift as well, but all three were miles ahead of everyone else.
He appears back on form. Our back 5 looks pretty solid. Now to sort out the midfield and forwards! Happy with Lucas and Suarez as starters. I'd like some competition with Sterling to keep him performing and not burn him out - I think Walcott will provide that. I hope Allen can pick his form up as he's been poor of late. I'm happy for him and Henderson to rotate. We need a replacement for Downing and Gerrard. So we need a striker, Walcott, a left mid and a centre mid! lol A CB in the summer too. Not too much to ask surely?!
Got to go to Johnson, him and skrtel are having a really good season so far. Allen is beginning to give me the ump, I think it's going to be one of those that just keeps getting selected cos he's BRs buy. You are supposed to trust your life with this guy when it comes to possession but he is giving it away more often than not and he doesn't offer much else....
This Reina Johnson Enrique Skrtel Agger Lucas Suarez This is top 4 class. I really want to see Sahin and Suso playing in the centre midfield with Lucas behind them.
Allen will sadly never be dropped. Johnson was brilliant for most of the first half, Shelvey though, I though he was fantastic in the second half. Winning balls, taking shots, getting in the box and even some skills from Suarez and much like him, denied a stone wall penalty. Good to see Coates picked to come on over Carra, although the first challenge he went for, against a bullying cole, the striker just threw himself to the ground because he finally came up against someone bigger than him.
Johnson is such a threat on that right hand side and he's one of the few players in the team that can actually hit the ball from a long range. I thought Shelvey was terribly up until his goal to be honest. HE struggled with simplest of tasks such as passing, control etc. But - he does have fantastic movement in the box. That is evident throughout the game, and it's the reason why he is played as the False 9 over someone like Suso. Our 3rd goal was lucky, but Jonjo created that luck by getting on front of his man and forcing the error. After his goal, he became a lot more confident and his passing and control was immense. Then he showed his skills and should have got the penalty. He is a fantastic talent but I think he has struggled recently (since his sending off). What really drew me to him before was that he had this swagger and almost arrogance about him - he would play like Stevie, demanding the ball from everyone, not afraid to play the long ball etc. But then he lost it (since the Utd match). Hopefully that 'goal' has helped him found it.
Fair enough judgement. Quite similar with Sterling, thought he improved yesterday after a poor first half. Still think Jonjo at 20 is a great prospect.
Both are top prospects - still very raw but in time, I think they'll be big players for us. I'll include Henderson in that list as well.
He's been doing it for a while- something to do with his brother wearing glasses and some banter between them, I think.
